


The Avatar and The Diode

by gillywulf



Category: Avatar: Legend of Korra
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, F/F, Superheroes
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-10-21
Updated: 2017-04-10
Packaged: 2018-02-22 02:45:24
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 2,706
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2491586
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/gillywulf/pseuds/gillywulf
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Years ago, the Avatar wreaked havoc on Republic City. She was stopped, but at a cost. Now, Korra has to find a way to deal with her past.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> If I go a week without updating this, please send me angry messages on tumblr. I beg of you. I am going to finish this.

No. This could not be happening. She was the Avatar, she was all-powerful! Being defeated by a pair of non benders was not an option. All of her plans had gone off without a hitch. She roared in fury and sent another barrage of flaming rocks at the two _heroes_ trying to stop her. They dodged and evaded and came closer.

The Avatar was getting desperate. Despite her young age - 11 - she was a genius and her power was unparalleled. The heroes coming towards her were middle aged and clearly worked well together. They constantly knew where the other was going in order to avoid her attacks.

She forced out a blast of air that collided with a parked truck. The vehicle was sent flying right into the path of Rectifier - the woman. She crashed into it with a loud thud, then slipped to the ground. The man - Resistor - shouted in concern but continued advancing in the Avatar.

He threw himself over a car roof to her right and whipped his leg out in a flying kick. The Avatar ducked just in time, forcing her to roll backwards and lose we concentration. He quickly dropped down and threw some gadgets at her. One exploded in a blinding light that she couldn't close her eyes quick enough for.

Snarling, she attempted to see through earthbending, but she couldn't see the gadget already soaring through the air towards her from her front and behind. Just as she raised her arms to blast Resistor with fire, both gadgets exploded and wrapped her in wires.

Caught by surprise, she was stuck. Behind her, Rectifier pressed a button on her battered belt. Pain shot through the Avatar's body caused by electric shocks from the wires. She screamed and fell to the ground, out cold. Resistor turned to Rectifier, panting.  
  
"Are you all right, sweetie?" he asked, stepping over the body between them. She nodded but was still winded.  
  
"Yeah, call the police, I'll just be kind of bruised" she ordered and touched her side gingerly. He nodded and obeyed. As they police sirens came into earshot a few minutes later, the Avatar stirred. The two heroes watched her warily, however thy were confused when her eye opened. Instead of the usual glowing blue, they were a normal deep blue. She groaned and looked around, confused.  
  
"What? Where am I?" Her eyes opened more fully as she took in her surroundings. She caught sight of the heroes standing over her.  
  
"Who are you? What is going on?" Rectifier frowned.  
  
"Do you remember anything? What's your name?" she asked, crouching slowly. The Avatar shook her head.  
  
"I don't remember anything" she minutes before falling unconscious again. The couple exchanged confused glances. The police chose that moment to pull into the street and surround them. Officers popped out of their cars and immediately had their arms up, ready to metal bend wires at their waists to trap the girl. The chief dropped in front of the two heroes.  
  
"So what's the story?" the hardened woman asked briskly.  
  
"She tried to destroy the city. But it seems that our last attack has wiped her memory. The Avatar is - essentially, no more" Resistor explained. As he spoke, the sound of tires squealing against pavement caught their attention. News vans and reporters pulled out their cameras and notepads, hoping for the scoop. The chief frowned.  
  
"Alright, well that's a problem for later. I'll give you guys the honor of putting her in the truck" she sighed. Under the haze of camera flashes and reporters voices, the hero couple carried their fallen nemesis into the police truck and carefully placed her inside. It would be the last time their photo was in the paper. Only two days later they announced their retirement.


	2. Chapter 2

"Asami, I really don’t think this is a good idea" Korra muttered, following Asami up the attic stairs. "I mean, your parents don’t give us boundaries really. So if they tell us not to go up here, I tend to be okay with that" Asami rolled her eyes and held out a hand to pull her onto the platform.

"If you want to kiss me and know for sure they won’t find us, it has to be up here" Korra frowned.

"I do want that" she replied pressing a peck to Asami’s cheek. They closed the door soundly and moved to where an old ratty couch was pushed into the corner. Asami pressed her against the cushions and straddled her legs. the resulting kiss was deep and passionate, filled with pent up feelings and emotion. Asami’s parents were vehemently anti-bender and Korra had discovered two summers before that she was a waterbender.

Not wanting to be kicked out of her foster home, she kept it a secret. Naturally, Asami found out and was far more enthusiastic about it than Korra expected. It was also for that reason that they kept the true nature of their relationship quiet. Knowing Asami was dating not only a bender, but a girl would likely blow Hiroshi’s gasket. Neither wanted to take that risk. Asami sat back against Korra’s legs with a satisfied hum. They sat there, contentedly gazing at one another.

"Why do you think they don’t want us up here?" she asked suddenly, casting a curious look around the room. The waterbender tightened her lips.

"I don’t really know, but it’s got to be a good reason right?" The taller girl pushed herself up and and moved to one of the piles of boxes, rummaging around. Korra stayed where she was. The dark room was littered with boxes covered in dust, proving just how long they’d sat there. Some were clearly full of old clothes - she could see bits of cloth peaking out of some cardboard flaps - and papers. Asami let out a victorious noise and plopped herself next to Korra on the couch clutching an old photo album.

"Look at this. It’s filled with old pictures of my parents. They never show me this stuff. I have to imagine it" Asami gushed. She flipped open the first page. The first photo was of the couple wrapped loosely around each other in front of an Earth Kingdom war memorial. Even Korra would admit how weird it was to see them so young and carefree. The next few pages were all similar, vacations, dates, parties, ordinary things. And then things got bizarre. The two of them stared at a newspaper clipping explaining the deeds two superheroes had performed the day before. The two girls glanced at each other, confused. They turned another page. Another clipping.

"This doesn’t seem at all cohesive" Korra mumbled. Asami nodded faintly and turned another page. The picture was startling to say the least. Asami’s parents were clearly tired and bloody as they smiled into the camera. Instead of the normal clothes they wore, they donned superhero suits. The pair let out a gasp in recognition of the insignias on their chests.

"I think your parents are world famous retired superheroes" Korra said in disbelief.

"But wouldn’t they say something? I knew they were gone pretty often when I was a kid, but I thought it was just business stuff" Asami ran a hand through her hair.

"Well, maybe they planned to when you were older" the waterbender guessed.

"Korra, I’m sixteen years old. If they were ever going to sit down and tell me, they missed a lot of chances" Asami grumbled, flipping a new page. Their breath stopped in their lungs. The newspaper clipping showed her parents holding a supervillain by the arms, leading them into a prison truck. The villain’s face was unexpected.

"Korra, why are you being arrested by my superhero parents?" the nonbender asked slowly. Suddenly she wasn’t leaning so heavily on her girlfriend anymore. The space was slight, but spoke volumes.

"I- I don’t know. I don’t remember any of this" She turned to Asami with a pleading look on her face. "Asami, I don’t remember anything beyond four years ago. I don’t know what this is" she begged. They were still in the overwhelming silence. Korra felt her hear hammer in her chest until Asami managed a nod.

"No, you’re right. I know that. I’m being ridiculous. Anything you might have done as-" she skimmed the article quickly, "-‘the Avatar’ isn’t you anymore. You’re a new person" Asami reasoned. The bender’s shoulders sagged with relief. She felt a gentle kiss against her forehead. "I shouldn’t have doubted you. It was an instinct reaction. I’m sorry" Asami apologized.

"No, I’d have the same reaction. It’s okay, really" They both looked back to the article. They were quiet as they read through it and flipped to read another article about her.

"So I was a crazy evil child who could bend all the elements. Well, this certainly turns a lot of things on their heads" Korra said light-heartedly, attempting to get through the fog in her head. She’d only just discovered waterbending, how was she supposed to master all of the others, too? And what if she got power hungry again? Should she just ignore the power she had in order to live a normal life? A pair of soft hands on her face grabbed her attention.

"Hey, none of that. You promised to tell me what went through your head, remember?" Asami reassured. Her thumbs gently stroked the skin of Korra’s face.She let out a stuttering breath, calming her raging heart.

"I’m just worried that I might become that person again and I don’t want that" she explained, not meeting the other girl’s eyes. Asami smiled.

"Don’t worry about that, you’ve got me for that. We'll figure this out together" she assured, placing a gentle hand on Korra's thigh. Korra hoped that would be enough.


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm sorry I went away for 3 years. ᕕ( ᐛ )ᕗ But also not.

“Asami, I really don't think this is a good idea” Korra half-shouted to cover the distance between them. Her girlfriend shrugged and waved off her concern.

“It'll be great. What's a better way of pulling out your other bending powers than forcing you into a life or death situation? Watch your stance. Ready?” There were genuinely few things in the world Korra wanted to hear less when there was a flaming crossbow pointed in her direction.

“I mean I'm not really but I don't think that'd stop y-” A loud _twang_ and the fireball careened towards her. Thankfully, her instincts and pure unadulterated _fear_ kicked in just in time for her to yank up her arms, and with it, a block of ice large enough to halt the projectile. She collapsed to the ground with her heart racing.

“Korra! Holy sh- are you okay?” Asami dropped to her knees at her side barely a moment later, her hands touching all over in search of injuries.

“I'm fine, I'm fine,” she heaved a heavy breath, “you know, when you suggested I try and get in touch with my bending so that I'm not afraid of it, I didn't quite expect you to make me afraid of you” Her hand fell to Asami's knee by her hip. The older girl snorted.

“Well if I had any other way of attacking someone who could bend all four elements and not die, I'd be sure to use it. If you really don't want to do this-” Korra sat up.

“No, I do. I don't mean to sound ungrateful-”

“You don't” For a long moment the two simply stared at one another. Then they burst into laughter.

“You just shot a fireball at me” Korra let herself fall back against the dirt.

“I did” Asami giggled. “Which – contrary to popular belief – I _do_ feel bad about that. But! You did block it with ice which I've never seen you do before. So,” she cringed ahead of her next word, “progress?” The feeling of pushing the water into a thick, solid, object still tingled at Korra's fingertips when she nodded. She almost cursed herself for wanting to try it again. The newspaper article on 'The Avatar' was at the forefront of her mind most days now.

When she woke up, she was paralyzed with the fear that she could change back and that the home Hiroshi and Yasuko had given her would vanish. When she ate lunch, she could picture her few friends Mako and Bolin turning from her with disgust. Dinner always came with the horrible realization that just a little over-indulgence in her power, however accidental or brief, could send even Asami packing. Her stomach fluttered.

“Progress” she agreed slowly. Asami grinned and shot to her feet. With her hands held out, she began excitedly babbling about her next idea. Korra took the soft hands she'd come to love and pulled herself up.

“I know our house isn't _that_ tall, but if you jumped from the roof-”

“No,” she vetoed, “smaller steps. Like, a low tree branch that we know won't break my arm” She received a sagging set of shoulders, and then a nod.

“That's fair. There's a really good one on the western corner” The dark haired girl took off in the direction she meant, all the while dragging her nervously excited girlfriend. “I do wish there was more stuff out there to read about airbenders. Since most of them are gone and the few existing ones _really_ keep to themselves, it's no wonder I couldn't find more than four pages of lore online. I'm going to the library tomorrow before work”

“Awesome, thank you. I'd also really appreciate it if you could find anything about controlling firebending” Asami nodded.

“Yeah, I'll take a look. I have to imagine that there's a lot of firebending stuff. Whether because firebenders are far more willing to talk about their bending than airbenders, or because this city used to belong to the Fire Nation, I couldn't say. This is the tree!” The tree had clearly been growing on the property for a long time. It's thick branches reached upwards and upwards until almost completely out of sight. Korra was happy to note that the lowest branches were indeed no more than five feet from the ground. 'Progress' she reminded herself.

With a steadying breath, Korra hoisted herself up onto the only branch she could reach before carefully balancing herself on the thickest part. Her legs shook all the while. She forced herself to ignore it with each wobbling step closer to the middle.

“Uh, Korra?” Asami called up hesitantly.

“I got it”

“It's okay if you don't want to do it-”

“Asami, I promise”

“I don't want you to get hurt”

“I'm not afraid and I'm not going to get-” As she took her next step, her foot slipped completely free of the rough bark and the rest of her body began to follow it. Her arms whirled wildly as she tried to keep herself upright. It was all in vain. For a solid _moment_ , Korra was almost sure she was going to die, or at the very least be in extreme amounts of pain. Neither of those options were terribly exciting to her. 

But when she stopped falling, there was neither death nor pain.

She cracked open an eye (she really didn't know what she was expecting) and found herself hovering just a foot off of the ground, nothing but a spinning ball of air keeping her from the freshly mowed grass. She blinked. And the air dissipated. She let out a hard _umf_ as she finished her decent and Asami was on her in a second.

"What- how- Korra, you airbended! That was airbending!" She grinned, shaking  her girlfriend's shoulder with the realization that she wasn't hurt. Korra couldn't help but laugh along with her once she stopped seeing stars.

"I'm an airbender!" She threw her arms around Asami's neck for a tight embrace. Maybe what she could do didn't have to be so scary. She could bend the elements to her will and still want to come home to Asami every night. She didn't have to pick and choose. And she'd have help.

"I'm so proud of you" Asami whispered into her ear.

"Thank you. Just one problem," Asami pulled out of the hug with a frown, "how do I do it again without almost dying?"

 


End file.
